Following International Women’s Week, Fairygodboss, a Glassdoor-like platform aimed at helping women find female-friendly workplaces, has announced today that it has raised $10M in series A financing co-led by GSV Accelerate and Signal Peak Ventures. This comes following a recent report that women earned only 2.2% of VC dollars in 2018. Their unicorn status in terms of landing this kind of funding isn't lost on cofounders Georgene Huang and Romy Newman and they are pretty excited about what this kind of capital means for the future of the platform.

“We're thrilled about this new investment to the company. Fairygodboss has grown tremendously since its founding. We're excited about our continued growth, which will allow us to enhance our product for both the FGB Community and corporate customers,” says Georgene Huang.

Huang and Newman, both former Dow Jones executives, founded Fairygodboss in 2015 on a hunch and a hope that women, if asked, would anonymously offer up information such as maternity leave benefits, salaries, advancement opportunities and company culture—they were right. The crowdsourced platform went live with around 100 reviews and, now, counts tens of thousands of company reviews and more than three million monthly visitors to the site.

On day one, and every day since, those women accessing the platform have been able to do so without ever touching their wallet. According to Huang, that's always been the promise of Fairygodboss - with or without the $10M in funding:

"We are committed to being a free, digital platform for the millions of women who use our site every month. From accessing anonymous job reviews, to community advice, to jobs at top-rated companies for women, Fairygodboss is the largest career community for women, and we look forward to continuing to be a free resource to every career-minded woman."

While the investment won't have any impact on the business model of the platform, Huang has indicated that users can now expect a whole host of new features and updates for the Fairygodboss community including more personalization options and an update to the reviews portion of the platform coming soon.

In lockstep, they hope to roll out some updates that acknowledge the other party that's begun to take note of the platform: companies looking to attract and retain female talent. When Glassdoor launched its company ratings site in 2008, it took off quickly and it fundamentally changed the expectations companies faced when it came to being transparent about company policies, benefits and culture. It also, in many ways, forced companies to step up their game on those fronts in order to attract and retain the best talent. That kind of impact is what Fairygodboss is hoping to see stem from its platform and, with this funding, aims to launch several enhancements for the companies using the site including the ability to host virtual events, respond to reviews and to list job openings more easily.

Fairygodboss now counts over 100 corporate partners including powerhouse companies like, Apple, General Motors, Hilton, and JPMorgan Chase and hopes to see that list continue to grow as more employers realize the demand to prioritize creating female-friendly workplaces. According to Huang, when companies do step up to the plate, they are happy to provide a platform for them to showcase those efforts:

“In order to recruit the top female talent, we believe it’s important employers engage in storytelling to showcase why they’re a great place for women to work, and we help employers do that.”

To pull off all of these product enhancements, and to fast-track their growth over the next few quarters, Fairygodboss aims to double its staff from 30 employees to 60 by the end of 2019.